Untitled Essay, Research Paper

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 1 of 14

Section 1.1: Forms Analysis and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by Approved by:1.1 FORMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

1.1.1 WHAT IS A FORM?

A form is basically a fixed arrangement of captioned spaces designed

for entering and

obtaining pre-described information. A form is considered

effective if it

is:? easy to complete

? easy to use

? easy to store

? easy to retrieve information quickly

? easy to dispose1.1.2 HOW IS IT IMPORTANT?

In a business, forms and design are greatly needed to allow the company

to better organize the way they want their business to operate

smoothly and efficiently. Although the presence of forms and

design in a company ensures that the company will run better, be

able to make better decisions and be able to coordinate activities

more easily, these forms and design programs must be covered in

the companies budget, in terms of costs. The company will have to make sure that its forms and designs are a

unique standard throughout the company and not different in

separate sections of the companies total make-up. If, by chance

the presence of a universal form in a certain section of the

company is a disadvantage rather than an advantage, the forms and

policies of other companies may be looked at in order to correct the

problem. When creating a form, companies may use the same

standard techniques before making changes to make the form right

for its company.

Some basic techniques are making sure that the form is easy to fill in,

takes minimal time to fill-in, it has a functional layout and it

contains an attractive visual appearance. After using the basic standards of form design, the forms

analysists’, spend countless hours making the design a unique

standard for their company, while considering every section of the

company, so that the form will be useful to every member of the

company.Policies and Procedure Guidlines Page 2 of 14

Section 1.2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

1.2 TOOLS AND AIDS FOR FORMS DESIGNING Many companies use the same basic tools to design their forms. In the

past when forms were designed, many “traditional tools”

were used to design forms. Some of those tools include the

following:? pencils, erasers

? rulers, triangles

? tracing paper

? lettering and symbol templates

? cutting tools

? masking tape and cellophane tape

? correction fluid

? rubber cement Now, because of new technology and easier ways to design forms, most of

these tools are obsolete. New computer hardware and software have

provided many tools and accessories which have allowed companies

to train employees to design forms using these advanced tools.

Software packages such as Corel Draw, Microsoft Office, which

includes Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint along with

WordPerfect, PowerBuilder, Visual Basic and many other software packages

have made tasks easier to complete. Their amazing accurate and

precise design tools provide “picture-perfect” quality.

1.2.1 Computer Hardware and Software

? Pentium Computers

Today most designers use computers especially

Pentium computers

because of their speed and performance.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 3 of 14

Section 1.2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:? Corel Draw

There are several different software packages

that can be used to design

the forms. Many

companies recommend Corel Draw. It is an excellent

choice to use for

designing the form as you would want it on paper. There

are excellent designing tools included in

the Corel Package which

allows you to draw lines of any size, color or shape. It also

allows you to

insert grids, graphics, graphs or images with different border styles and

sizes.? Microsoft Word

After designing the physical appearance of the

form with style and

borders, Microsoft Word will be used to fill in the form’s information

because of the

various fonts that are available. Also, Microsoft Word’s

ability to change

font size, and either, bold, underline or italicize wording,

will be very useful in the creation of

the text that will appear in the form.

? Microsoft Excel

This section of Microsoft Office can be used by

the designers to design

grids and graphs

that might be needed to represent data in the form. Grids

and tables may be inserted into the form

to hold data that the

applicant may need to fill. Different types of graphs such as pie charts,

line graphs,

column graphs and combination graphs may be needed to

represent a

question in the form. For example, the applicant may need to

fill in what

percentage he/she belongs to as compared to the rest of the

field represented

by the graph.? Microsoft Access

This section of Microsoft Office can be used to

design databases. The

designers may

want to include previously designed tables or create new

tables to insert

into forms. They may also want to only include portions of

tables in which they can create queries

so that the tables they insert

includes only the

information that they specified.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 4 of 14

Section 1.2: Tools and Aids For Forms and Design Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:? Printers

An Epson III Laser Jet Color Printer can be

used to print the forms. The

laser quality

will provide the crisp and clear texture of lines and text,

along with bright

colors to make the form more attractive and visually

appealing.

Although any laser printer, will provide excellent quality, the

color laser jets

printers makes the forms more attractive because of how

the different

colors distinguish between the different sections of the form.? Saving Forms

All the forms will that are designed by the

company should be backed up

on the hard drive

of the computers. The forms will be saved whether they

were used or not,

in case of changes in the form’s design or in case the

company wants to

improve on a previously designed form. The forms will

also be saved on floppy disks, just in

case of viruses, malfunctions in the

computer or hard

drive upgrading and formatting.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 5 of 14

Section 1.3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

1.3 DESIGNING PROCEDURES The two major objectives of this process is: 1) collecting information, which is its reason for existence

2) facilitating a format for the form, which is standard.

1.3.1 Facilitative Area

The forms are a very important aspect of a

company because they provide

the information

of each employee that the employers wish to know. Since

most companies use a standardized format,

each company must contain its title and

identify the type of form that the applicant is filling out .

It is also useful to include the name of the

department, date, codes and

instructions that

may be necessary to complete the form.

? Identification

The title of the form will be placed at the top

center of the form and in any case where

the form contains more than one invoice, it should include

subtitles to

distinguish it from the rest of the forms. If the forms will be

filed, it will be

helpful to place the title in the “visible area” of the form,

which would be

the area visible on the form when it is in a filing cabinet

or some other

type of filing.

? Form Numbers

The forms will also include form numbers which

will be placed in either

of the lower

corners on each page of the form. This will prevent the form

numbers from

being covered by staples and it won’t interfere with the

working area of

the form. It will also serve as an aid in stocking the forms

in small quantities.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 6 of 14

Section 1.3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:? Page Numbers

It is also very important to ensure that all

the pages of the form contain

page numbers for

various reasons. This will be helpful in identifying what

page of the form it is and help make it

easier to sort out forms, especially

if they contain

more than one page. The page numbers should be placed

in the upper

right hand corner of the page so that when the form is opened

the number of the

page will be easier to see when the pages are stapled in

the upper left

corner. (EX: Page 1 of **)

? Edition Date

The company should ensure that all the forms

contain edition dates which

show when the

form was made. The form should also show how long

they will be

valid before they need to be updated again. The edition dates

will be included

with form numbers.

? Supersession Notice

This is simply a method of notifying users and

workers in the supply room so that

they will know when a new form has been created has replaced the

older version of the form. It is also

used when a newer version of the

previous form has

been revised. This notice is usually printed in the bottom

margin of the form. It should

let the

user know if the form has been replaced and what the number of

the new form is.

If more than one form is used to replace a single form,

then a separate

notice should would be more appropriate to inform

effective

personnel of the change. ? Expiration Dates and Approval of Forms

If a form is to be used for only a limited of

time, then it should contain

expiration dates

and limit dates. These will let the users no when and how

long the form will be valid and when they

should get another one. Because many forms have to be approved by a

company first before they

are distributed

to users, they must allow room for the company to state its

approval number,

signature or symbol, along with the date that the form

was approved.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 7 of 14

Section 1.3: Designing Procedures Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:? Emblems and Symbols

After the forms are approved by the company,

the designers must insert

the

company’s emblem or logo on the form. This will validate the form as

property of that company and act sort of

like a patent so that it won’t be

used by any other

companies.

? Comments and Suggestions

In order to have room for improvement on the

forms, there should be

enough space for

any comments or suggestions that the authorizing

department wishes

to leave when approving the form. The form will have

to be approved by the

department before the companies logo or seal can

be placed on the

form. and it will have to contain the companies logo

before the form

will be valid.Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 8 of 14

Section 1.4: Instructions Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

1.4 INSTRUCTIONS 1.4.1 General Instructions

To ensure that the forms are easy to fill out,

each form will contain

instructions for

completing the form and what to do with the forms after

completing them.

The instructions should be brief. The instructions that

are located under

the title of the form will be basic, general instructions

that tell the

applicant what to do with the form, why they are filling it out

and who they

should give it to when they are finished. This should be

read by the user

before completing the form.

1.4.2 Lengthy Instructions

In any case where the form is lengthy and

requires a lot of thought to fill it out,

an instruction booklet should be included with the form. These

instructions are

more lengthy but explain more about filling out the form.

They should try

to answer any questions that the applicant may have about

his/her choices while completing the

form. These instructions will

explain clearly

how to fill out the form, including what is mandatory to fill

in and what sections are optional. These instructions should be sort of like a

written procedure that explains

the form in a

sort of summary. The font size of the wording should be

carefully

designed to make sure that the words are big enough and the

lines should be

double spaced to make sure that the instructions are clear

enough to read

and understand.

An acceptable reading font size is around 12pt

or 14 pt size. Times New

Roman, Arial or

Courier are standard true type fonts that are clear and

easy to read.

1.4.3 Section Instructions

There will also be instructions included in

each section. These

instructions will explain clearly how to fill out each the section of the

form. It will

contain information on whether or not the section needs to

be filled out in

order to determine full completion of the form.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 9 of 14

Section 1.5: Addressing and Mailing Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:1.5 ADDRESSING AND MAILING 1.5.1 Self-Routing

On the bottom of the last page of the form or

on the back of the last page,

there will be a

space for the address of the employer and a space for the

applicant to fill

in his/her address, along with extra space in case the form

has to be sent to

multiple routes. This will make it easier for the forms to

be transferred to

the employer and increase the capability of self -

routing mail.

When addressing to a certain employer, job

titles should be used instead

of names just in

case changes in departments should occur due to

promotions or lay-offs. This will change the positions held by certain

employees who are

in control of certain departments which means

different responsibilities for these people. 1.5.2 E-Mailing and Faxing

Companies that have email will be at an

advantage. They will be able to

email a copy of

the form to the user and have them fill out the appropriate

information and

then email the results back to the employer For companies that don’t have email, fax

machines are also useful. They

can simply fax

the forms to the employees or applicants. The employees

can then fill it

out and then fax it or bring the form to the employer in

person. 1.5.3 Personal MailBoxes

In most companies, employers and employees have

their own personal

mailboxes. By

including both the address of the employee and the

employer, it is easier for employees or users to transfer forms to the

employer. In the

event that the employer may be out on a business trip,

the applicants

may simply drop the forms into the employers mailboxes to

meet deadlines.Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 10 of 14

Section 1.6: Form Layout Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

1.6 FORM LAYOUT? Sheet Size

The forms should be designed on 8 1/2” x

11” carbon paper with a carbon

sheet on the

back, so that the person filling out the form can keep a copy

for him/herself.

The sections of the forms should be placed on both sides

of the paper to

save paper. The information on the forms should not be

crammed so that

some important information could possibly left out or so

that it would

make it harder to read the questions due to poor spacing or

small lettering.

? Margins

The form should have half inch margins on all

sides so that the wording

won’t be too

close to the end of the page. This allows the user or reader to

hold the paper without covering any

wording on the form.

? Spacing

The amount of horizontal and vertical spacing

is determined by the

amount of

headings and sub-headings, size and style of text and the

amount of space

left for fill in answers.

? Box Format

The form will follow a box format which will

increase space because the

information will

go to each end of the page margin. It will have

exceptional horizontal and vertical spacing to enable easier reading.

? Borders and Bolding

The different sections of the form will be

divided by solid black lines.

The headings and

sub-headings will be bolded and larger than the question

text in order to improve the visual

appearance of each section of the

form.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 11 of 14

Section 1.6: Form Layout Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

? Shading

Shading will also be used in the sections where

no information is required

to make it easier

for the applicant to know what sections he/she needs to

fill in. This

would also be used to highlight sections that need to be filled

in, but not by

the applicant. For example, some forms have sections that

specify “for

office use only” meaning that they don’t have to fill out any

information in

that section.

? Answer Spaces

There will be spaces indicated on the right

side of the section that will be

lined aligned

with one another. They will be used for filling in

information that contain only numbers or a letter code. In the case that the

answers to the question requires several

lines in order to answer it, there

will be more than

enough space available to appropriately answer the

question.

Therefore the information must be clear and widely spaced so

that it is very

easy to fill out the forms.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 12 of 14

Section 1.7: Breakdown of Form Arrangements Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:

1.7 BREAKDOWN OF FORM ARRANGEMENTS The form should be set up in a way to make it easier for the applicants

to fill in. The sections of the forms will be organized so that

all the related parts of the form are placed one after the other

to avoid reading back through the form. The form will have

headings and sub-heading which define which section of the form

you are filling out and help you understand what kind of information you

should fill in.

1.7.1 Beginning

The personal information will be placed at the

first of the form.

This will contain things such as the applicants name, address,

phone number, and date of birth .

1.7.2 Body

This will contain the basic purpose of the

form. It will have the

questions that will be needed to complete the form, depending on

what kind of form it is. For example, if it was an application for

applying for a job, the beginning would include the items

mentioned above in the beginning section. The body, would contain,

previous

education, previous employment, the position you wish to apply

for and your

references.

1.7.3 Ending

This section of the form will have spaces to

fill in the address of the

person you wish

to send it to, along with your own address. It will have

several spaces in

case you wish to send it to more than one person.Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 13 of 14

Section 1.8: Revising an Existing Form Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:1.8 REVISING AN EXISTING FORM There are many things to consider when revising a form:? Previous forms will be considered to be obsolete? Previous editions of forms can be used until there are no more

left. Companies can use the older forms

until there are no more left before

presenting a new form.? Existing stocks which include the form number and edition date

can be used. The now obsolete forms, will be replaced by new ones,

but the form numbers and editions dates will be transferred on to

the new forms.

Policies and Procedure Guidelines Page 14 of 14

Section 1.9: Replacing Existing Forms with Different Numbers Effective date: March 6, 1997

Issued by: Approved by:1.9 REPLACING EXISTING FORMS WITH DIFFERENT NUMBERS? You first have to replace the form numbers and edition dates

which are now considered to be obsolete.? Instead of replacing the number and dates right away, you can

wait until there are no more forms left and then make the changes

to the new forms.